Mina looked at Lucy sitting on her bed beside her, earnest and nervous, and was slightly confused. “Well, that’s all right, I’m sure…many girls our age haven’t kissed anyone before, and, really, it’s probably better that you haven’t. I doubt that your mother would be very happy if there were tales about of you kissing all sorts of random boys –“

Lucy looked deep into Mina’s eyes, imploring in that irresistible way she had. “It’s just, now that I’m getting old enough, and Arthur has started actually flirting, I really feel as though I ought to – just to know what it’s like, you see, so that when Arthur actually does kiss me, I don’t make a terrible mess of it. And I don’t want to kiss some random boy, that just wouldn’t do at all, he’d go around telling everyone and it would be so terribly embarrassing. But if I kiss you, then no one would ever know, and, even if they did, there wouldn’t be anything improper about it at all.”

Mina found herself blushing. “Lucy, don’t you think it would be better to save your first kiss for some special moment – don’t you want to actually be with Arthur, at that? I’m sure he wouldn’t mind you being inexperienced, not in the least.”

And, at that, without waiting for another word from Mina, Lucy leaned forward and kissed her. Lucy’s lips were soft, far softer than Jonathan’s, and Mina found herself closing her eyes and leaning into the kiss, savoring the gentle sensations of it. Kissing Lucy was comforting, but yet somehow dangerous also, as though the wrong sort of kiss could trigger something wild and frightening in Lucy, and maybe in Mina as well. The combination made Mina’s pulse race unexpectedly fast, just as much as it did when she kissed Jonathan, and she felt as though she never wanted to stop.

Finally, Lucy pulled away, her eyes bright and her cheeks flushed. “Oh, thank you, Mina. Do you think Arthur will be happy with that?”